Patristics Newsletter
Newsletter 2006 | Newsletter 2, 2005 | Newsletter 1, 2005 | Newsletter 2004
Grants
The Korean project on Poverty and Riches in the Later Roman Empire, which includes collaboration with the Centre’s project, has been funded by the Korean government for two years from 2008, at $100,000 each year.
Dr Bronwen Neil has received an Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung Fellowship for a six-month period of research at University of Bonn in the second half of 2008. She will be working with Prof Wolfram Kinzig on a project entitled “Leo the Great and poverty in fifth-century Rome”. This research forms part of the ARC funded project on Poverty and Welfare in Late Antiquity that will be completed by members of the Centre for Early Christian Studies at the end of 2008. Dr Neil has also been granted a Return-to-work Award ($10 000) by ACU for second semester 2008 which will allow her to travel to Germany.
Members of the Centre for Early Christian Studies (Pauline Allen, Wendy Mayer, Bronwen Neil, Geoffrey Dunn and Silke Trzcionka) in collaboration with a team of Japanese scholars (Kazuhiko Demura, Miyako Demura, Shigeki Tsuchihashi, Satoshi Toda and Jun Suzuki) have been awarded a grant of $50,000 for two years by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) and the Bilateral Joint Research Project between JSPS and the Australian Research Council (ARC) for their project “Joint Studies in the Perspectives on Poverty in an Era of Crisis–Testing Some Social Models of Early Christianity”. JSPS’s support mainly takes the form of travel grants, and the ultimate purpose of this project is to build sustainable networks by supporting researcher interaction between the two teams. The Japanese research team will complement the Centre’s ARC-funded project “Poverty and Welfare in Late Antiquity” ($320,000 in 2006-8).
Grants 2007 | Grants 2006 | Grants 2005
Publications
Tertullian’s Aduersus Iudaeos: A Rhetorical Analysis, Patristic Monograph Series 19, by Geoffrey D. Dunn, was published by Catholic University of America Press in 2008. This is the published version of his doctoral dissertation. It examines Tertullian’s Aduersus Iudaeos, a controversial text from third-century North Africa and argues that looking at the use Tertullian made of the principles and practices of classical rhetoric we can resolve the issue of the authorship of the second half of the work, and its overall structure and purpose.
Matthew and his Christian Contemporaries edited by David C. Sim and Boris Repschinski was published by The Library of New Testament Studies and compares the author of Matthew's Gospel with a selection of contemporary Christian authors and texts. This presents an area for discussion in New Testament studies as much of the religious literature contemporary with Matthew displays a diminished relevance of the Mosaic Law. In this book the contributors seek to establish the distinctiveness of Matthew by comparing his theological perspective with the documents many believe to have been his major sources - Mark and Q - and with the two remaining Gospels, the Pauline epistles, and other early Christian texts.
At the recent annual meeting of the Centre for Early Christian Studies in Brisbane, which was attended by Honorary Fellows from Japan and USA, three books were launched.
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Dr David Luckensmeyer is lecturer in New Testament Greek and Earliest Christianity, Dr Johan Ferreira is Principal of the Bible College of Queensland, and Professor Pauline Allen FAHA is Director of the Centre.
Dr Ferreira’s book will be the prescribed text for the first online Hebrew unit which he has designed and will teach in Semester 1, 2009.
Publications 2007 | Publications 2006 | Publications 2005
Research Visits
From 19-30 March 2009, Professor Pauline Allen delivered five public lectures in Japan and South Korea. The visits were made in connection with the Centre’s ARC Discovery Project on poverty and welfare in late antiquity and involved Okayama State University (Japan), Hoseo University, Presbyterian College, and Baesuk University, Seoul (South Korea). The Centre’s team working on poverty has been the model for Japanese and Korean scholars researching similar topics.
On 17 April, George Lawless OSA, from the Augustinianum in Rome and visited and presented a paper on the finances of those clerics mentioned in Augustine, Sermo 356.
The attendance of Japanese and Korean colleagues at the Australian Early Medieval Association conference hosted by ACU in Brisbane gave an opportunity on 30 September for the first meeting to be held about poverty in late antiquity research currently being conducted by the three teams within South Korea, Japan and Australia. In attendance from overseas were Wonmo Suh, Kazuhiko Demura, Miyako Demura, and Naoki Kamimura.
On 27 March, Theo De Bruyn, director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Classics and Religious Studies at the University of Ottawa, and vice president of the International Association of Patristic Studies, visited the centre
.On 10 March Satoshi Toda from Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo, a member of the Japanese team investigating poverty in late antiquity visited the centre.
The baptistery of the Arians in Raveana" was presented by Frau Claudia Dobrinski of University of Paderborn when she visited the Centre on 17 January 2008.
Professor David Runia, Master of Queen's College, University of Melbourne, visited on 6 March 2008 who spoke on his ongoing Philo research with a paper entitled “Why Philo is an important figure in late antiquity”.
Research Visits 2007 | Research Visits 2006 | Research Visits 2005
Conferences
AEMA's fifth annual conference, "Welcoming the Stranger in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages", was held from 1-3 October 2008 at the Sebel Conference Suites, Charlotte Street, Brisbane, hosted by the Australian Catholic University. One of the keynote papers was presented by Dr. Wendy Mayer, entitled “Welcoming the Stranger in the Mediterranean East.” Other members of the Centre to present papers were Silke Sitzler, Geoffrey D. Dunn and Pauline Allen.
The Fifth International Triennial Conference of the Centre for Early Christian Studies incorporating the next meeting of the Western Pacific Rim Patristics Society was held at St Patrick's campus in Melbourne from 9 -12 January 2008. At the same time, we held the next Prayer and Spirituality in the Early Church conference, on the theme “Poverty and Riches”, at St Patrick’s Campus, Melbourne. For additional information, please visit its website.
Conferences 2007 | Conferences 2006 | Conferences 2005
Other News
On 30 and 31 January the Centre held its annual meeting in Brisbane. As well as general discussions, reports about past events, and strategic planning for the future, some research was presented by Dr. David Lukensmeyer with a paper entitled “Intertextuality in Obadiah and First Thessalonians” and by Dr. Naoki Kamimura from Tokyo Metropolitan University with a paper entitled “Rhetorical Approaches to the Poor and Poverty in Augustine’s Enarrationes in Psalmos.”
Dr. Geoffrey D. Dunn has been appointed to the advisory board of Journal of Early Christian Studies from the start of 2009.
Western Pacific Rim Patristics Society is now called Asia-Pacific Early Christian Studies Society. All news and correspondence for WPRPS are now using the name Asia-Pacific Early Christian Studies Society .
Associate Professor David Sim has been appointed to the editorial board of New Testament Studies, the most prestigious journal in the field. His appointment runs from 2009 to 2011. In July he was at a conference in Aarhus, Denmark, on the Gospels of Matthew and Mark. This was a specialist conference with only eighteen invited participants. Associate Professor Sim delivered a paper on the current state of research on the Gospel of Matthew, which will be published by Mohr Siebeck in the proceedings of the conference.
Dr. Ian Elmer on 18 April was the invited speaker for the annual Brisbane Seminar Group for New Testament and Early Christian Studies, hosted this year by ACU. Ian’s paper was entitled “I, Tertius: Secretary or Co-author of Romans.” This paper has now been published in Australian Biblical review 56 (2008), pp. 45-60.
The director of the Center, Prof. Pauline Allen, gave a public lecture at Chuo University, Japan, in June 2008 entitled “Challenges in Approaching Patristic Socio-ethical Texts froma Twenty-first Century Perspective.” In October she participated in a workshop “Poverty and the Economy in John Chrysostom, Jerome and Augustine,” hosted by the Department of Ancient Languages, University of Praetoria, South Africa.
On 16 October Dr. Bronwen Neil presented a paper entitled “The Political Hagiography of Anastasius Bibliothecarius,” at the Centre of Hellenic Traditions, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary.
Establishing ties with the Catholic church in Antioch: From June 9-15, 2008, Wendy Mayer visited the ancient city of Antioch (modern Antakya, Turkey) with US scholars Tina Shepardson (University of Tennessee, Knoxville) and Dayna Kalleres (University of California, San Diego). Each of the three is researching a different aspect of the late antique history of the city. The purpose of the visit was to examine the topography of ancient Antioch in relation to the distribution of its Christian churches and other religious sites during the fourth to seventh centuries. Time was also spent exploring the few surviving Greco-Roman remains in and around the city and its ancient port, Seleucia Pieria, as well as locating caves on the side of Mt Silpius that may have been occupied at that time by hermits. One of the pleasures of the trip was meeting Padre Domenico Bertogli ofmcap, the priest of the Antakya Katolik Kilisesi (www.anadolukatolikkilisesi.org/antakya), who has a personal interest in the city's Christian past and in making the local inhabitants more aware of its significance. One of the many outcomes of the research visit was a mutual agrement to assist Padre Domenico to establish in Antakya a library of publications on the history of Antioch to be housed at the Katolik Kilisesi. Plans are underway to make a second visit in 2010.
Dr Edward Morgan was asked to participate as a panelist at the New Voices conference at the Lowy Institute for International Policy, in July, 2008. The Lowy Institute is an independent international policy think tank based in Sydney. Its objective is to generate new ideas and dialogue on international developments and Australia’s role in the world. The New Voices initiative is part of the Institute’s outreach efforts and serves three main goals: to introduce the Institute and some of the bigger questions it grapples with to a new audience; to provide engaged early-career people from a variety of backgrounds with a platform to express their insights and ideas on important issues of international policy; and to facilitate professional cross-pollination. New Voices themes emanate directly from the mandate of the Lowy Institute, which is to analyse in a practical, policy-relevant manner Australia’s place in the world and the global challenges and opportunities facing different groups in Australia. Dr Morgan spoke on “Corporate Social Responsibility: A Force for Good?” [Lowy information courtesy of website: see http://www.lowyinstitute.org/ ]
Four members of the Centre participated centrally in the North American Patristics Society Annual Meeting in Chicago. Dr Bronwen Neil delivered a plenary lecture entitled Gifts and Giving: Modelling Evergetism in the Fifth Century. Drs. Mayer, Dunn and Morgan presented a combined panel entitled Economics and Poverty in the Early Christian World: Boundaries, Realities, and Frameworks. The session was chaired by Dr Neil. Work from each member emerged from the ongoing ARC-funded grant on the study of poverty and welfare in late antiquity. A monograph from this project will be published in 2009.
Dr Edward Morgan has signed a contract for the publication of his Cambridge doctoral dissertation with T&T Clark, Continuum. It will be published in 2009 as The Incarnation of the Word: The Theology of Language of Augustine of Hippo. Dr Morgan has also signed a contract with T&T Clark, Continuum to co-edit The T&T Clark Companion to Augustine and Modern Theology with Dr. Chad Pecknold (Loyola, Maryland; and CUA, Washington). This work will be a major interpretative volume synthesising the relationship between ancient and modern readings of Augustine of Hippo. It will be published in 2010.
For Semester 2, 2008 Dr Mary Sheather has been awarded a bursary to research at St Deiniol's Library at Hawarden in Wales. The only residential library in the United Kingdom, St Deiniol's was founded by the Victorian statesman William Ewert Gladstone and has a strong theological, historical, and political collection.